Fading
by gh0stg1rl
Summary: Something very strange is going on with Danny...and it's a race against time to figure out what, before Danny completely vanishes...and not in the normal ghost way.


Another of my fics that's been sitting around for a while...finally going up! I hope you like it...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom. That's why it's called FAN fiction...and why this is not an actual episode.

* * *

It was a calm Saturday afternoon. Danny, Tucker, and Sam were found at the Nasty Burger, discussing plans for the rest of the weekend. Suddenly, the calm was broken. Danny's breath hung in the air. A ghost was obviously around. A loud crash was heard. A ghost in a high-tech battle suit materialized in the middle of the room. People screamed, and rushed for the door. The amount of people clogging the doorway made rush-hour traffic look tame. Danny looked at the ghost.

"Skulker!" he shouted. "I'm goin' ghost!" He leaped into the air. The familiar blue-white rings formed around him, traveling in opposite directions up and down his body, transforming him into Danny Phantom. He rose higher, and went after Skulker.

Tucker looked the PDA still attached to Skulker's wrist, and at his own watch. "If you can keep him busy for about 45 seconds, he'll have to leave!"

"No problem!" Danny shouted. He flew after Skulker, hit him hard, and sent him flying into a wall. He still wasn't sure whether this actually hurt him or just damaged his battle suit, but he knew it slowed him down. Skulker got up, and smiled evilly. This was what he loved, the way his prey resisted, the fight, the struggle. He found it fun. He glared at Danny for a moment. A large energy gun, almost the size of Skulker's entire suit, emerged from his shoulder. He took aim at Danny, but Danny showed no fear. Tucker was counting down the seconds before he would have to take off.

"Five, four, three..."

Skulker began to power up the energy gun. The massive barrel began glowing blue. Then it intensified, turning bright white.

"Two, one…BYE, SKULKER!"

However, to everyone's surprise, the PDA did not begin beeping. Skulker stayed where he was.

"Wait! What the heck? Aren't you supposed to be reading about a gorilla now!" Tucker shouted.

"I managed to reprogram this thing!" Skulker said, proudly, pointing to the PDA, and allowing the gun to power down. "Now, ghost child, we finish this!"

He powered up the energy gun again. Danny flew out of the way. The blast hit a table. The table glowed blue for a moment, then it returned to it's original state. It was completely unharmed.

"Don't worry, ghost child, I do not intend to hurt you. I was instructed to simply capture you and bring you to someone," Skulker said. "Now, will you come quietly, or do I have to take you by force?"

Danny glared at Skulker. He said nothing, he just blasted Skulker into a table.

"Ah, if that's the way you want to play..." Skulker grabbed Tucker and Sam. He held a glowing blade to their throats.

"You wouldn't..." Danny said, obviously with some concern in his voice.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" he said. He held the blade tighter against their throats. "Either you come with me, or say goodbye to your little friends. Your choice."

Danny looked at the situation for a moment. He sighed deeply, and said, "All right. I'll go."

Skulker released Tucker and Sam. He walked over to Danny.

"What! No! You can't!" Sam shouted.

"I have to," Danny said. "I'll figure something out."

Skulker walked over to Danny. Sam and Tucker panicked. Danny shot them a look to say "Don't worry, I'll figure out a way to get out of this." Skulker tied him up, blindfolded him, and took him away. Tucker and Sam stared, feeling helpless. Though the look Danny had given them reassured them a little, they couldn't help but wonder if he really was going to be okay...

After about two hours of flying, someone removed Danny's blindfold. He found himself in a laboratory, surprisingly similar to his parents'. He could tell that this wasn't his parents' lab, though. He also knew there could only be one person with a lab so similar to his parents' and would hire a ghost to go after him.

_'Vlad...'_ he thought.

Sure enough, at that moment, Vlad walked in.

"You! I should have known you'd do something like this!" Danny shouted.

"I brought the boy, now where's my reward?" Skulker, who was still standing behind Danny, said.

Vlad pulled a brand-new PDA out of his pocket. It was obviously much better and newer than the one he had stolen from Tucker. Vlad handed it to Skulker. Skulker ripped Tucker's PDA out of his battle suit, and replaced it with the new one.

"What's going on? What's this all about!" Danny asked.

"I grow impatient, child! I wish you would join me. You know the things I can show you..." Vlad said, as he duplicated himself and recombined. "Please, join me! All you have to do is --"

Danny cut him off. "I know what you want me to do, and you're one absurd Apple Jack if you think I'm gonna do it!"

Vlad sighed. "Very well then, suit yourself," he said. He threw a small capsule on the floor and vanished. Danny choked on the red smoke that began spewing from the capsule.

"I wonder what that was all about," Danny said to himself once the smoke cleared. He took off, and started on the long flight back home.

A little over two hours later, he was back. He rushed to find Tucker and Sam. He found them, still at the Nasty Burger, examining the area where they had last seen him. He rushed down to talk to them.

"Tucker? Sam? I --"

Sam cut him off. "Do you mind? We're --"

That was when she realized who the voice behind her was. "Danny! You're okay! What happened?" she said.

Danny went on to tell them exactly what happened. He told them about Skulker's new PDA, Vlad's growing impatience, and how unusual he found it that he got off so easy...

"But why did he let you off so easy?" Tucker asked.

"Don't know, don't care. I'm here, he's gone, I'm fine," Danny said. He checked to make sure no one but Tucker and Sam could see, and switched back to his human form. For some reason, he kept his spectral glow after changing back to human form. Sam noticed, and pointed it out.

"Danny, you're still glowing!" she exclaimed.

Danny looked at his hands. Sure enough, they were still glowing, but it faded quickly. "It's probably just because I'm tired," Danny said. "After all, I did just fly back from Wisconsin."

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense," Sam said, a little apprehensively. This hadn't happened before just because he was tired...

_'No, it's nothing, I'm sure,'_ she told herself. _'He's fine, there's nothing to worry about.'_

As they walked away, toward their respective homes, Danny couldn't help but notice that he felt a little strange. _'I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow,'_ he thought. His foot went intangible on its own; the first time something like that had happened in months. It fell through the sidewalk, causing him to fall. _'But, maybe I'll avoid my parents until then, just in case...'_

Danny walked through his front door. He looked around. His parents were nowhere to be seen. He concentrated on solid objects, as he walked up to his room. _'I am solid concrete. There is no way I'm going to fall through this floor...'_

He walked to his room with no problems. Whatever was going on probably just stemmed from the exhaustion and shock from the incident earlier, right? Nothing to worry about. Falling through the sidewalk was probably an isolated incident, just because he needed rest, right?

True or not, he hoped he would be fine in the morning. He looked at the clock in his room. _'9:59! Wow, just in time! One more minute, and...'_

He shuddered at the thought of his parents getting on his case over missing curfew, and seeing him fall through the floor, or a wall...

_'I won't have to worry about that tomorrow, I'm sure of it,'_ he thought. _'I just need rest, I'm sure that'll do it.'_

He went to bed, falling asleep in his clothes. He tried not to think too much about whatever was happening. Though he told himself that he was fine, he couldn't help but be a little worried...

The next morning, he woke up still feeling a little strange, but better than when he went to bed the previous night. He barely even remembered what had happened the previous day, but it didn't matter to him. He'd rather forget about the whole incident, anyway.

He got up, when suddenly his breath hung in the air. A blue-skinned ghost in overalls materialized in the middle of the room. The Box Ghost.

"Beware! I am the Box Ghost!" the ghost shouted, trying to sound menacing, and failing miserably. "I possess control over all containers cardboard and square!"

"Ugh, you again!" Danny groaned.

"Ha ha! I cannot be kept in the confines of your cylindrical trap!" the Box Ghost shouted.

Danny groaned as he got up to fight the Box Ghost, for what felt like the billionth time. However, for some reason, when he went ghost, he found it was much harder than usual. He didn't think too much of it, though. He easily fought off the Box Ghost, yet again. He landed, and changed back to human form. Once again, he noticed that switching between forms was significantly harder than usual. He looked down at his hands. Just like the previous night, they still glowed. The glow didn't fade quite as quickly this time, but it did fade. Danny became a little worried.

_'No,'_ he told himself, _'it's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine, it's nothing! The glow did go away, after all...'_

Danny ran downstairs and had a bowl of cereal, taking extra care not to let the spoon fall through his hand, like it did about a month after the accident. He knew something strange was happening, but he told himself it would go away on its own shortly...

As soon as he finished his breakfast, he ran out to meet Tucker and Sam. About halfway to Sam's house, however, an ectopus showed up and blocked his path.

"Oh, great, another one of these guys. Going ghost!" he shouted, as he ducked into a narrow back alley where no one could see him. Two somewhat bright white rings formed around him, definitely not the same bright white as usual, and moved in opposite directions around him, transforming him, once again, into Danny Phantom. Something felt very strange this time...

Danny ignored the strange feeling he had, and fought the ghost, beating it easily. He landed, and switched back to human form. Again, the rings were slightly duller than usual, and for some reason, they moved slower than usual, adding an extra two seconds to his usual transformation time. Just like the night before and earlier that day after fighting the Box Ghost, the glow lingered for a short period while he was in human form. It stayed for even longer this time; about 90 seconds.

Danny noticed this, but continued to ignore it. He was sure it was nothing, that it would just go away soon...

He continued on to meet Tucker and Sam. However, they couldn't do much more than say "Hi," before Danny's ghost sense went off again, triggered by an angry ghost tiger.

"Ugh, not another one!" Danny groaned, as he went ghost and dealt with the ghost tiger. The rings that formed around him, making the transformation, were even duller this time than the previous, a plain white color with very little glow to them. Still, he ignored it. Tucker and Sam showed some concern; this was very strange...

Still, they continued to brush it off, and try and have a semi-normal day. However, they had no such luck. The whole day, they couldn't go 30 minutes without a ghost interruption. They were all rather easy for Danny to fight off, however, they noticed that every time he would switch forms, the rings forming around him were duller than the previous time. When he would switch back to human form after fighting each ghost, he would keep his glow for longer each time...

To Danny, Tucker, and Sam, it felt like the longest day since before any of them could remember. Danny's ghost sense went off for the sixteenth time (though it felt like the hundredth time) since the fight with the Box Ghost that morning. "Ugh…looks like Dad's been playing with the genetic lock again…" Danny said as he went ghost, yet again, and flew off to fight the sixteenth rampaging ghost in eight hours; a large ghost bear with long, razor sharp claws and teeth to match. After the day he had, Danny didn't want to fight this bear, but he distracted it just long enough to get behind it and suck it into the Fenton Thermos. He landed, and switched back to human form. It took about five times longer than usual this time, and two dull, light gray rings formed around Danny making the change. This struck Tucker and Sam as highly unnerving; this had definitely never happened before...

"Danny?" Sam asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Danny let out a weak chuckle. "Of course, I'm fine!" he said.

"Are you really sure? You seem a little…off, today," Tucker said, obviously very concerned. "By the way, you still haven't stopped glowing, it's taking longer each time..."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" Danny replied, a little defensively. "There's nothing wrong with me..."

His voice weakened with the last few words. He, Tucker, and Sam stared at each other for a moment, and Danny suddenly collapsed.


End file.
